Statement of CECC Chairman Byron Dorgan and Cochairman Sander Levin on the 21st Anniversary of the Suppression of the Tiananmen Square Democracy Protests

Statement of CECC Chairman Byron Dorgan and Cochairman Sander Levin on the 21st Anniversary of the Suppression of the Tiananmen Square Democracy Protests

June 4, 2010

(Washington, DC)—Twenty-one years ago, as students, government employees, journalists, workers, police, and other citizens calling for democratic reform gathered in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, and in over 100 other Chinese cities, thousands of armed forces moved into Beijing. Training its firepower directly onto crowds around Tiananmen Square, the People’s Liberation Army killed or injured thousands of unarmed civilians. We express our sympathy to the relatives and friends of those killed on that day, and we stand with those who were unjustly wounded, detained, or imprisoned and with those who continue to suffer today.

We call on the Chinese government to end its harassment and detention of and its discrimination against those who were involved in the 1989 protests, not only in Beijing, but in other parts of China where protests took place, and to end its harassment, detention and imprisonment of those who continue to advocate peacefully for political reform. We call on the Chinese government to permit Tiananmen protest participants who escaped to or who are living in exile in the United States and other countries, or who reside outside of China because they have been ‘blacklisted’ in China as a result of their peaceful participation in democracy protests, to return home to China, without risk of retribution or repercussion.

Today, we honor the memory and courage of those who were injured, ill-treated or who lost their lives in the 1989 protests. Those in China who demand a full and impartial investigation into and accounting of the events surrounding June 4, 1989 and those who continue to advocate peacefully for democratic reform deserve our unconditional support.